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HOW TO ENHANCE A 3D
RENDER, IN 2D PAINT PACKAGES
(Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, GIMP etc)
NOTE: these techniques apply to any render program,
this is an old tutorial so I used Bryce.
Post work is great way to improve your images!
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1
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Before
2d enhancement |
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After
2d enhancement |
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Poser, Bryce and Paint Shop Pro to make this picture, but other
2d Applications like Photoshop use almost exactly the same techniques. |
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| 2 |
How this 3D image was greatly
enhanced in 2D
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As you can see from the
before and after pics, there is quite a difference! When creating
the original image, I knew there would be a lot of problems.
When I created the 3D Pic in Poser and Bryce, I couldn't
change somethings, so that had to be done later in 2D. Parts of
the main character's cloak (Silverblade, hey, I can do self portraits
:>) let the areas below show through, the same with his trousers
(very embarassing that is!)
Other problems were that the orc's breastplates (2)+
(4) showed up as blue, the shield was too plain (5),
and I need to add fire for the last orc's torch (3).
Additionally, I needed to add a beard (1)
and some shading to Silverblade's hair, tidy the chain round his
neck (it didn't reach far enough), and when all was done, darken
the entire picture. I hadn't darkened it in 3D as that would have
made it harder to view what I was doing and wouldn't be as precise
as I wished.
IMPORTANT TIP: copy your original image to a new layer
when you work on it, saves screwing up your original image and lets
you compare it ;) |
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| 3 |
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Now, I was going to work on the orcs first, as the
one at the rear had a light source and I wanted to make sure he
looked right. To work on him without interfering with the rest
of the image I needed to make a MASK. When I made the original
image I also created some masks as well, masks are black and white
(or greyscale) images that act as selections.
(In Bryce, select objects then use RENDER MASK) So
I opened up the mask of the orc I had made, copied the original
image to a new layer, then using MASKS--NEW MASK--FROM IMAGE,
I created the mask that you can see to the left, it cut out everything
but the orc, so only the orc would be affected by changes, nothing
else. A most handy trick! ;)
Now to make his blue breastplate go brown, I carefully
selected it using the FREEHAND SELECT tool, using SHIFT key to
add to the selection, and CTRL to take away selections. When it
was all selected, I used SELECTIONS--SAVE TO ALPHA CHANNEL to
save that selection so I could work on it later should I wish.
Then I used SELECTION--PROMOTE TO LAYER, so that selected part
was copied to a new layer where it could be worked on without
affecting anything else. To change the colour, you can use COLORS--COLORIZE,
then fiddle with the settings to achieve a reddish-brown. Then
I used COLORS-ADJUST--GAMA CORRECTION to change it a bit more.
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| 4 |
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A PAINTING WE WILL GO! A PAINTING WE WILL GO!...
After altering the other orc's armour like the first one, it
was time to start painting. To give our hero a nice set of hair,
I made a new layer (always always make new layers!) and
painted on bit by bit a fuller head of hair and beard in black.
This I then lightend by adding streaks of grey, getting lighter
and lighter, to build up highlights, using the SMUDGE tool and
blurred the highlights into the base colour.
Then on NEW layers again, using masks and selections, I did the
same to the jacket. To improve the jacket I added silver edges
and buttons. I did this by making selections, filling with a colour
then using the Blade
Pro Plugin, making it look silver.
Another effect added a glowing red star over the top of the gem
in his necklace.
Paint Shop Pro has smoke effects in its PICTURE TUBES, this
was ideal to add smoke coming from the torch. I did this then
smudged and altered the smoke with some painting in grey. The
picture here shows it very dark, for the final effect I turned
the LAYER TRANSPARENCY down for the layer it was on, so it was
not so thick and opaque.
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| 5 |
I used Blade Pro on the belt as well, and added 2
gems beside the belt with it. Then fixed his trousers by using
the CLONE BRUSH tool to slowly, carefully copy small areas of
the trousers over defects.
GENERAL RULE: always paint with brushes or ANY effect with
opacity and hardness set to low or medium (50%), this lets
you slowly build up the effect without making it to thick and
heavy.
Once trousers were filled, I added highlights and shadows
by using the eye dropper tool to select the basic colours, then
adjusting the colours lighter or darker as needed and painting,
then smudging softly to blur finished result.
Then I went back to the other orc, selected bits of his
shield and used Blade Pro to give it a coppery look.
The fire itself I painted in by hand, again, smudging,
mixing in various colours and setting the layer transparency to
be less than 100% solid.
Final touch was to SAVE the original work, then save
it AGAIN with a new name and MERGE ALL LAYERS, to achieve a final
result and leave an intact spare copy. To makle it darker I SELECT
ALL, then ADJUST COLOURS--GAMMA CORRECTION and turned the image's
overall brightness down. Voila, finished pic! :)
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I hope you find this tutorial
of use! :)
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